Solaris is a 1961 Polish philosophical science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. The book centers upon the themes of the nature of human memory, experience and the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species.

In probing and examining the oceanic surface of the planet Solaris from a hovering research station the human scientists are, in turn, being studied by the sentient planet itself, which probes for and examines the thoughts of the human beings who are analyzing it. Solaris has the ability to manifest their secret, guilty concerns in human form, for each scientist to personally confront.

His Master’s Voice (original Polish title: Głos Pana) is a science fiction novel written by Stanisław Lem, first published in 1968. It was translated into English by Michael Kandel in 1983. It is a densely philosophical first contact story about an effort by scientists to decode, translate and understand an extraterrestrial transmission. The novel critically approaches humanity’s intelligence and intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from outer space.

A six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun. The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger, and everywhere there are images of death. The crew’s attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth-cruel precisely because it is so human.

Fiasco:

The book is the fourth in Lem’s series of pessimistic first contact scenarios, after Eden, Solaris and The Invincible. It deals with the Fermi paradox, and the concept of otherness. Lem describes an alien species that is much more ‘alien’ than those imagined by most other science fiction authors. He is also critical of human nature, describing how the crew’s desire to force contact by any means makes the failure of the mission inevitable.

The Investigation:

A young officer at Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a puzzling and eerie case of missing-and apparently resurrected-bodies. To unravel the mystery, Lt. Gregory consults scientific, philosophical, and theological experts, who supply him with a host of theories and clues.

The Cyberiad:

Trurl and Klapaucius are ‘constructors’ - they travel around the universe creating machines of astonishing inventiveness and power and visiting a bewildering variety of violent, peculiar and morose civilizations. The Cyberiad is oddly reminiscent of Gulliver’s Travels, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice in Wonderland. Charming, mind-bending and anarchic, it is perhaps Lem’s greatest work.

Miller is best known for the only novel he published in his lifetime, “A Canticle for Leibowitz.” Composed of a trilogy of novellas that originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, ”Canticle,” which was released in 1959, has never been out of print, selling more than two million copies. While it hasn’t attracted the following enjoyed by “The Lord of the Rings” or even “Dune,” it remains a hugely influential book and a landmark of post-apocalyptic fiction. Along with Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles,” “A Canticle for Leibowitz” was one of the first novels to escape from the science-fiction ghetto and become a staple of high-school reading lists. Its legacy can be seen in the works of Gene Wolfe, Margaret Atwood, and many other speculative-fiction authors who came after him, as well as in the current flood of end-of-the-world novels, TV shows, and movies.

The book’s first novella, “Fiat Homo” (“Let there be Man”), is set at a monastery in the Utah desert some six hundred years after a nuclear holocaust known as the Flame Deluge. The war caused a backlash against learning and knowledge, called the Simplification, which wiped out almost all traces of civilization. Most of the people on earth are illiterate. Many are deformed by radiation. The monks who reside in the monastery are devoted to honoring the memory of Isaac Edward Leibowitz, a Jewish scientist at Los Alamos who was martyred for his efforts to safeguard scientific knowledge in the aftermath of the conflict. They collect and transcribe the “Leibowitz Memorabilia,” including shopping lists, technical documents, and circuit diagrams that they cannot even begin to understand. The protagonist of “Fiat Homo” is a bumbling but well-intentioned novice named Francis who, during a Lenten fast in the desert, accidentally discovers the fallout shelter Leibowitz used. This discovery results in Leibowitz’s elevation to sainthood. Francis makes the treacherous journey to New Rome to witness the canonization and is killed by mutant tribesmen on his way back to the abbey.